Tackling Delinquency in the Era of Social Credit System: Prospects and Risks

The paper is devoted to the changes in fighting delinquency connected to the application of artificial intelligence and Big Data analytics. The focus of the paper has been made on the Social Credit System and related advanced mechanisms of control and surveillance, which are currently being built and implemented in China. The issue of how the latest technologies of social control impact the fight against crimes and administrative offences has been examined. The transforming effect of introduction of the Social Credit System and algorithmic mechanisms of social control upon the legal system and some of its institutions (notably, the legal liability institution, the punishment, the concept of an offender) has been assessed in the paper. The authors come to the conclusion that the introduction of the Social Credit System in China and the development of algorithmic mechanisms of social control and crime prevention may lead to the separation of punishment from the construct of legal liability and the concept of an offence as a guilty deed.